Thursday, May 02, 2013

The Transfer of the Relics of the Holy Passion-Bearers Boris and
Gleb. St Gleb (September 5) was a brother of the Great Prince of Kiev
Yaroslav the Wise (1019-1054), and was baptized with the name David.
The holy relics of Prince Gleb were found at Smyadyno, near Smolensk,
and from there they were brought to Kiev.

Metropolitan John I of
Kiev (1008-1035) and his clergy solemnly met the incorrupt relics of the
holy passion-bearer and placed them in the church of St Basil the Great
at Vyshgorod, where the relics of St Boris already rested. Soon the
burial place was glorified by miracles. Then the relics of the holy
brothers Boris and Gleb were removed from the ground and placed in a
specially constructed chapel. On July 24, 1026 a church of five cupolas
built by Yaroslav the Wise was consecrated in honor of the holy martyrs.

In
later years, Vyshgorod’s church of Sts Boris and Gleb containing the
relics of the holy Passion-Bearers became the family church of the
Yaroslavichi, their sanctuary of brotherly love and service to the
nation. The symbol of their unity was the celebration of the Transfer of
the Relics of Boris and Gleb, observed on May 2. The history of this
Feast is bound up with the preceding events of Russian history. On May
2, 1069 the Great Prince Izyaslav, who had been expelled from the
princedom for seven months (i.e. from September 1068) because of an
uprising of the Kievan people, entered into Kiev. In gratitude for God’s
help in establishing peace in the Russian land, the prince built a new
church to replace an older structure. Two Metropolitans, George of Kiev
and Neophytus of Chernigov, participated in its consecration with other
bishops, igumens, and clergy. The transfer of the relics, in which all
three of the Yaroslavichi (Izyaslav, Svyatoslav, Vsevolod) participated,
was set for May 2, and it was designated as an annual celebration.

Svyatoslav
Yaroslavich, Prince of Kiev during 1073-1076, made an effort to
transform the Sts Boris and Gleb temple into a stone church, but he was
able to build the walls only eight cubits high. Later Vsevolod (+ 1093)
finished the church construction, but it collapsed by night.

The
veneration of Sts Boris and Gleb developed during the time of Yaroslav’s
grandsons, often producing a peculiar pious competition among them.
Izyaslav’s son Svyatopolk (+ 1113), built silver reliquaries for the
saints. In 1102 Vsevolod’s son Vladimir Monomakh (+ 1125), sent master
craftsmen by night and secretly adorned the silver reliquaries with gold
leaf. Svyatoslav’s son Oleg (+ 1115) outdid them. He was called
“Gorislavich”, and was mentioned in the “Tale of Igor’s Campaign.” He
“intended to raise up the collapsed stone (church) and hired some
builders.” He provided everything that was necessary.

The
church was ready in the year 1111, and Oleg “pressured and besought
Svyatopolk to transfer the holy relics into it.” Svyatopolk did not want
to do this, “because he did not build this church.”

The death of
Svyatopolk Izyaslavich (+ 1113) brought a new insurrection to Kiev,
which nearly killed Vladimir Monomakh, who had become Great Prince of
that city. He decided to cultivate friendship with the Svyatoslavichi
through the solemn transfer of the relics into the Oleg church.
“Vladimir gathered his sons, and David and Oleg with their sons. They
all arrived at Vyshgorod. All the hierarchs, igumens, monks and priests
came, filling all the town and there was no space left for the citizenry
along the walls.”

On the morning of May 2, 1115, the Sunday of
the Myrhhbearing Women, they began to sing Matins at both churches, old
and new, and the transfer of relics began. The three were separated.
“First they brought St Boris in a cart, and with him went Metropolitan
Vladimir and his clergy.” On other carts went St Gleb “and David with
bishops and clergy.” (Oleg waited for them in the church).

This
separation was adhered to in future generations. St Boris was considered
a heavenly protector of the Monomashichi; St Gleb, of the Ol’govichi
and the Davidovichi. When Vladimir Monomakh speaks about Boris in his
“Testament”, he does not mention Gleb. In the Ol’govichi line, none of
the princes received the name Boris.

In general the names Boris
and Gleb, and so also Roman and David, were esteemed by many generations
of Russian princes. The brothers of Oleg Gorislavich were named Roman
(+ 1079), Gleb (+ 1078), David (+ 1123), and one of his sons was named
Gleb (+ 1138).

From Monomakh were the sons Roman and Gleb; from
Yuri Dolgoruky, Boris and Gleb; of St Rostislav of Smolensk, Boris and
Gleb; of St Andrew Bogoliubsky, St Gleb (+ 1174); of Vsevolod Big Nest,
Boris and Gleb. Among the sons of Vseslav of Polotsk (+ 1101) was the
full range of “Sts Boris and Gleb” names: Roman, Gleb, David, Boris.

The
Vyshgorod sanctuaries were not the only centers for the liturgical
veneration of Sts Boris and Gleb. It was spread throughout the Russian
land. First of all, there were churches and monasteries in specific
places connected with the martyrdom of the saints, and their miraculous
help for people; the temple of Boris and Gleb at Dorogozhich on the road
to Vyshgorod, where St Boris died; the Sts Boris and Gleb monastery at
Tmo near Tver where Gleb’s horse injured its leg; a monastery of the
same name at Smyadyno at the place of Gleb’s murder; and at the River
Tvertsa near Torzhok (founded in 1030), where the head of St George the
Hungarian was preserved [trans. note: the beloved servant of St Boris
was beheaded in order to steal the gold medallion given him by St
Boris]. Churches dedicated to Sts Boris and Gleb were built at the Alta
in memory of the victory of Yaroslav the Wise over Svyatopolk the
Accursed on July 24, 1019; and also at Gzena near Novgorod where Gleb
Svyatoslavich defeated a sorcerer.

The Ol’govichi and the
Monomashichi vied with each other in building churches dedicated to the
holy martyrs. Oleg himself, in addition to the Vyshgorod church, built
the Sts Boris and Gleb cathedral in Old Ryazan in 1115 (therefore, the
diocese was later called Sts Boris and Gleb). His brother David also
built at Chernigov (in 1120). In the year 1132 Yuri Dolgoruky built a
church of Boris and Gleb at Kideksh at the River Nerla, “where the
encampment of St Boris had been.” In 1145, St Rostislav of Smolensk “put
a stone church at Smyadyno,” at Smolensk. In the following year the
first (wooden) Sts Boris and Gleb church was built in Novgorod. In 1167 a
stone foundation replaced the wood, and it was completed and
consecrated in the year 1173. The Novgorod Chronicles name the legendary
Sotko Sytinich as the builder of the church.
The holy
Passion-Bearers Boris and Gleb were the first Russian saints glorified
by the Russian and Byzantine Churches. A service to them was composed
soon after their death, and its author was St John I, Metropolitan of
Kiev (1008-1035), which a MENAION of the twelfth century corroborates.
The innumerable copies of their Life, the accounts of the relics, the
miracles and eulogies in the manuscripts and printed books of the
twelfth-fourteenth centuries bear witness to the special veneration of
the holy Martyrs Boris and Gleb in Russia.

[trans. note: Neither
this account nor those of the individual feastdays give the details of
their martyrdom. Perhaps it is assumed that the reader is familiar with
the story, or perhaps it is too painful to recount. The saints chose not
to take up arms to defend themselves, or flee to safety. In their final
prayers, they refer to the Lord’s voluntary suffering and death, as
recorded by the chroniclers. Since they meekly accepted an unjust death
for the sake of Christ, they are known as “Passion-Bearers.”]